Various Artists

I Love Grime

Rinse;
2012

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The importance of college radio stations to non-mainstream music in the United States can't be overstated. In Britain, the closest equivalent is pirate radio, which provides a similar function but operates illegally. But British pirate radio has become something of an institution in itself-- even John Peel got his start in 1967 via pirate Radio London.

Neither dance music nor clubbing originated in Britain, but raves, and rave culture, did. As the first country to embrace these activities to a nearly national level-- a counterculture so widespread, Britain's own "summer of love" refers to 1989, acid house, and ecstasy-- the vast majority of today's pirate stations reflect that flavor, albeit several musical generations on. Hyper-localized (an illegal transmitter that has to be frequently relocated and jury-rigged just isn't going to give you that much juice) and operated primarily by DJs, the transmissions were mainly tuned into by friends, rivals, and acquaintances: a scene partly driven by a competitive spirit to outdo what they would hear from their peers on the air or in the club, whether by DJ skills, production, or on the mic.

Rinse FM, a longtime pirate turned licensed community station in 2010, is currently in the midst of its 18th birthday celebration. (You can watch founder Geeneus' recollections of its first days here.) That longevity helped Rinse to become the largest and most influential pirate going, especially around the genres of grime and dubstep, which are closely related and developed concurrently in London during the early 2000s. Long before the station went legit, its alliance with leading dubstep clubnight FWD>> and record label Tempa became an actual collaboration-- unifying dubstep, especially. During this time, Rinse also became a record label, primarily for CD mixes from the DJs that held steady radio slots.

With that in mind, and an I Love Dubstep edition already under their belts, current station fixtures Spyro and Sian Anderson undertake a disc each for I Love Grime. While they might initially seem odd choices for a station co-founded by revered grime DJ Slimzee, it fits the spec of the ongoing mix series with current DJs. At 26, Spyro is already a veteran: His first Rinse mix came out in 2009, he serves as DJ for Tinchy Stryder (like Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy is now a UK pop star who came up as a grime MC), and is claimed by Ruff Sqwad crew. Sian, a rare female grime DJ, is young but has held a show on Rinse for at least a couple of years.

Admittedly, the distinctions between microgenres of UK dance music can be difficult to distinguish for anyone not familiar with its history, and if you don't already know what grime is, Spyro's mix might not help you figure it out; opening with a bouncy speed garage number from producer Sticky is not what you'd expect. But part of what's interesting about the mix is how Spyro helps clue listeners to the transitions of the genres. Take, for instance, Pay As U Go Cartel's "Know We": Produced by Wiley in 2000, it marks an indeterminate spot between MC'd garage and grime, with garage beats supporting the kind of minor key moodiness-- both in bassline and string sample-- that would become one of the primary hallmarks of grime. Mixing that classic into the irresistibly ravey, brand new UK funky/bassline Royal-T instrumental "Inside the Ride" underlines another branch of the family tree-- the trunk is garage, the roots are hardcore rave and jungle. This dancefloor euphoria then breaks down into the grime halfstep stagger of Teddy Music and Newham Generals' "Doomed": three consecutive tracks, three interconnected but different takes on British club sounds.

That play between 140 garage bustle and 70 halfstep lurch makes most of the dynamics in a lot of grime DJ sets, and here as well. The rest is made up primarily from the macho adrenalin of aggressiveness that, let's face it, is one of the best parts about grime. Grime is jagged and ruff, audio violence resolved in the release of the dance. But Spyro's so hype, tending toward selections that reflect the same, that moments offsetting that-- like C4's "Off Track", Low Deep's "Straight Flush", and Skream and Trim's "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb!"-- cut right through.

Sian has a charming on-air personality and a consistently excellent track selection-- with today's technology, everyone can beatmatch competently, so these things matter. Here, a stretch of 11 tracks starting with Wiley's "Where's My Brother", a startling example of the key producer and MC actually singing, and extending to Spyro's own remix of "Radio", transforming twee folk-rocker Ed Sheeran into soft R&B crooner, lends synth brightness for greater texture to the grime darkness. A bit later, "Lassie" stands out both because the DJ Q production is a seductive pop R&B grinder, but also due to Discarda's distinctive accent while narrating the highs and lows of romance.

As an MC-led dance music genre, it's interesting to note that the voices recurring most often belong to Jammer and D Double E. Both scene leaders, to be sure, but D Double benefits from a nasal-ness that makes him instantly recognizable. "Bad 2 Tha Bone" is based on S-X's "Woo Riddim", a single track so tight that the producer managed to get 44 different MCs to jump on it individually for an epic mixtape battle that D Double appears to have come out as tops on, making it his own.

There's not much in terms of exclusive, unreleased material here, although I suspect that has more to do with the way digital culture operates than anything else. DJs may receive tracks for free, but they're not getting much of a jump on the public anymore. And grime is still contained enough as a genre that any enthusiast can pretty much keep an eye on almost all of it as it occurs. As such, the surprises are down to small details: track juxtapositions, overlooked songs, the oddness of an MC's voice pitched up in the mix, the skill of a DJ working to make so many vocal tracks meld without clashing. These mixes are postcards from the station as it goes about its daily business of playing great music.